The Washington Post on Monday said “researchers” claim “white resentment is fueling opposition to gun control.”

How did these “researchers” reach this conclusion? By showing whites pictures of African-Americans and Caucasians, asking them if they supported gun control and then measuring their answers (it was unclear if they used mug shots of black criminals or images of black Miss Universe contestants).

The paper’s abstract (published in a magazine revealingly entitled Political Behavior) reveals the “researchers” to be proponents of “racial resentment” theory, which claims that a new type of racism “dominates the racial thinking of whites generally.” However, even a link in the Post article says “racial resentment is not a valid measure of racism, which raises questions about the extent to which a new racism dominates the thinking of white Americans.”

Virginia Trooper’s Killer Was Career Criminal Barred For Life From Gun Ownership

The man police say shot and killed Virginia State Police Trooper Chad P. Dermyer, 37, at a Richmond Greyhound bus station Thursday was a career criminal who, an ex-girlfriend said, “wanted to be one of those guys that just died killing police officers,” the Recordreports.

Thirty-four-year-old James Brown III of Aurora, Ill.—who also allegedly shot and wounded two women in the bus station before being killed by two state troopers—had a lengthy criminal record in Illinois, including convictions for domestic battery and aggravated battery of a pregnant woman and charges of attempted murder and illegal possession of a firearm and body armor by a convicted felon.

The body armor possession charge, in retrospect, is particularly chilling: As Brown’s aunt, Edith Brown, told CBS News, “He wanted to be infamous ... in terms of having a showdown. He always praised those people who got into shootouts with police.”

WaPo Claims Gun Owners’ Supreme Court Fears Overblown

A headline in Sunday’s Washington Post presented a new take in the discussion over the nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to replace Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court: “The next Supreme Court pick matters less than you think.”

Georgetown law professor David Cole wrote that SCOTUS is unlikely to overturn the landmark Heller decision, citing the conservative court’s reluctance to overturn Roe v. Wade and Miranda v. Arizona. He joins other gun-control supporters, like Everytown president John Feinblatt and the Bloomberg-funded website The Trace, who scoff at gun owners’ fears that Garland would join the four sitting justices who opposed Heller and revoke it.

This sounds a lot like “No one is coming for your guns,” which, like the Post article, ignores the fact that Heller doesn’t have to be overturned for the Second Amendment to be regulated into oblivion. Regardless of what they say, a Supreme Court hostile to gun rights would not bode well for our hard-won gains for those rights.

Last week President Barack Obama commuted the sentences of more than 60 “nonviolent” federal inmates, many of which went to prison, in part, for possessing illegal guns. Yet U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., points out that as many as 33 of these criminals, referred to as nonviolent by the administration, were gun-carrying drug dealers. That’s a move that strikes the senator as hypocritical, if not duplicitous.

In a letter to the U.S. attorney general, Shelby writes, “These recent sentence commutations come on the heels of the president’s newly proposed executive actions restricting firearms …” Shelby then writes, “… I have supported federal proposals to improve the enforcement and implementation of existing firearms laws. However, enforcing existing firearms laws seems like an uphill battle when this administration has made a point of commuting the sentences of criminals with firearm convictions.”

S.C. Senate Chairman Refuses To Hear Anti-Gun Legislation

South Carolina Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Larry Martin has announced no further gun-related bills will receive a hearing this session. Of the more than 60 gun-related bills filed, one has passed, and three others—all pro-gun measures—have been sent to the full Judiciary Committee.

Among those not receiving hearings are proposals that would expand NICS check waiting periods, mandate gun registration and ban so-called “assault weapons.” Martin worries if he grants such bills a hearing, he could be labeled a “liberal, gun-grabbing chairman”—a label he says does not reflect his views on gun control at all.

“I don’t support any of that. I know there’s probably a handful of members who do. But this is one of those times where [I have] to step in and say, ‘You know, I don’t want my email system shut down or my phone lines blown up over something that has no chance of passage … To be blunt about it, no, we’re not taking them up.”

Fresh Market: Guns And Groceries Don’t Mix

The Fresh Market, a Greensboro, N.C.-based grocery chain, recently issued a statement asking customers not to bring guns into their stores. Company officials said this would “ensure a welcoming environment” where people can “treat one another with kindness and respect while shopping.”

We’re all for kindness and respect—in fact, most law-abiding gun owners are nothing but kind and respectful. But we’re also in favor of being armed and prepared. So until your policy changes, we’ll let you and the delusional Moms take your chances in your artificial gun-free zones.

Armed Chicago Man Stops Robbery

On Thursday, a Chicago man shot and killed another man who tried to rob him and a friend in an Uptown neighborhood.

According to local media, at about 10:30 in the evening two men were unloading a vehicle in an alley when another man approached them with a gun and demanded their belongings. One of the men handed over his wallet and cell phone, but pulled his gun and shot the robber when he tried to take the car.

Police said the suspect had been on parole for a past armed robbery conviction.